Naked Lunch (1991)

Director:

David Cronenberg

Writers:

William S. Burroughs (novel)
David Cronenberg (written by)

Release Date:

11 March 1992 (France)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

David Cronenberg and William S. Burroughs invite you to lunch.

Plot:

After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.

Plot Keywords:

Bug | Exterminator | Writing | Writer | Cockroach

Awards:

13 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Peter Weller	...	Bill Lee
Judy Davis	...	Joan Frost / Joan Lee
Ian Holm	...	Tom Frost
Julian Sands	...	Yves Cloquet
Roy Scheider	...	Dr. Benway
Monique Mercure	...	Fadela
Nicholas Campbell	...	Hank
Michael Zelniker	...	Martin
Robert A. Silverman	...	Hans
Joseph Scoren	...	Kiki (as Joseph Scorsiani)
Peter Boretski	...	Creature Voices / Exterminator #2
Yuval Daniel	...	Hafid
John Friesen	...	Hauser
Sean McCann	...	O'Brien
Howard Jerome	...	A.J. Cohen

Also Known As:

David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch (USA) (trailer title)
Le festin nu (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for heavy drug content, bizarre eroticism, and language.

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Canada | UK | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 | Iceland:16 | Netherlands:16 | Brazil:16 | Italy:VM18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 | UK:18 | USA:R | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Film Trustees Ltd.

Trivia:

The movie is packed with characters based on real people and events from the life of Burroughs. Like Bill Lee, William S. Burroughs was an exterminator and drug addict who accidentally shot his wife during a drunken game of "William Tell." Joan Lee is based on Joan Vollmer, Burroughs' wife. Hank and Martin, Bill's fellow writers, are Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Burroughs moved to a section of Tangier, Morocco, known as the "International Zone," hence "Interzone." Tom Frost is clearly based on Paul Bowles, and Kiki was in fact the name of a young man Burroughs had an affair with in Tangier, while writing "Naked Lunch."

Quotes:

[Joan Lee is explaining the joys of injecting oneself with insecticide]
Bill Lee: What do you mean, "it's a literary high"?
Joan Lee: It's a Kafka high. You feel like a bug.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Creeping Terror (#7.6)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Ballad

Weird...

I find it difficult to comment this movie, honestly. Without revealing anything, that is. This applies to comments only,as the evaluation would mostobviously be 10/10. You see, having read in one of the other comments here, that the movie contained an implication on heroin addiction, I expected to find something similar to "Requiem to a Dream" - a movie that leaves one single message and a bouquet of associated feelings in a viewer, with the message being DRUGS ARE BAD, in big friendly letters. I was wrong.

I guess those who enjoy psychedelic music will understand what I want to say better - this movie has a high. Not literally of course, but it does leave you in a different world, with lots of ideas, without any definite beginning or end. It is very, very weird, in the most positive, awesome meaning of the word. Definitely not another conformist movie with a moralistic message behind it. Which is a good thing, really, because we don't get a lot of that nowadays, and 1991 isn't that far away....

The only thing about it is that you either love it or hate it. Nothing in between.

I find it quite impossible to add anything without revealing the plot. Therefore the only thing I'm going to say is: watch it! Not the best movie in the world, but most certainly the strangest one, at least from my point of view.